Breaking Scale Research Articles

5-dimensional Chern-Simons gauge theory on an interval: Massive spin-2 theory from symmetry breaking via boundary conditions

In this note, we revisit the 4-dimensional theory of massive gravity through compactification of an extra dimension and geometric symmetry breaking. We dimensionally reduce the 5-dimensional topological Chern-Simons gauge theory of (anti) de Sitter group on an interval. We apply non-trivial boundary conditions at the endpoints to break all of the gauge symmetries. We identify different components of the gauge connection as invertible vierbein and spin-connection to interpret it as a gravitational theory. The effective field theory in four dimensions includes the dRGT potential terms and has a tower of Kaluza-Klein states without massless graviton in the spectrum. The UV cut of the theory is the Planck scale of the 5-dimensional gravity l−1. If ζ is the scale of symmetry breaking and L is the length of the interval, then the masses of the lightest graviton m and the level n (for n<Ll−1) KK gravitons mKK(n) are determined as m=(ζL−1)12≪mKK(n)=nL−1. The 4-dimensional Planck mass is mPl∼(Ll−3)12 and we find the hierarchy ζ<m<L−1<l−1<mPl.

Moduli stabilisation and the statistics of SUSY breaking in the landscape

The statistics of the supersymmetry breaking scale in the string landscape has been extensively studied in the past finding either a power-law behaviour induced by uniform distributions of F-terms or a logarithmic distribution motivated by dynamical supersymmetry breaking. These studies focused mainly on type IIB flux compactifications but did not systematically incorporate the Kähler moduli. In this paper we point out that the inclusion of the Kähler moduli is crucial to understand the distribution of the supersymmetry breaking scale in the landscape since in general one obtains unstable vacua when the F-terms of the dilaton and the complex structure moduli are larger than the F- terms of the Kähler moduli. After taking Kähler moduli stabilisation into account, we find that the distribution of the gravitino mass and the soft terms is power-law only in KKLT and perturbatively stabilised vacua which therefore favour high scale supersymmetry. On the other hand, LVS vacua feature a logarithmic distribution of soft terms and thus a preference for lower scales of supersymmetry breaking. Whether the landscape of type IIB flux vacua predicts a logarithmic or power-law distribution of the supersymmetry breaking scale thus depends on the relative preponderance of LVS and KKLT vacua.

A more natural composite Higgs model

Composite Higgs models provide an attractive solution to the hierarchy problem. However, many realistic models suffer from tuning problems in the Higgs potential. There are often large contributions from the UV dynamics of the composite resonances to the Higgs potential, and tuning between the quadratic term and the quartic term is required to separate the electroweak breaking scale and the compositeness scale. We consider a composite Higgs model based on the SU(6)/Sp(6) coset, where an enhanced symmetry on the fermion resonances can minimize the Higgs quadratic term. Moreover, a Higgs quartic term from the collective symmetry breaking of the little Higgs mechanism can be realized by the partial compositeness couplings between elementary Standard Model fermions and the composite operators, without introducing new elementary fields beyond the Standard Model and the composite sector. The model contains two Higgs doublets, as well as several additional pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons. To avoid tuning, the extra Higgs bosons are expected to be relatively light and may be probed in the future LHC runs. The deviations of the Higgs couplings and the weak gauge boson couplings also provide important tests as they are expected to be close to the current limits in this model.

Scale genesis by dark matter and its gravitational wave signal

Classical scale invariance (CSI) may shed light on the weak scale origin, but the realistic CSI extension to the standard model requires a bosonic trigger. We propose a scalar dark matter (DM) field $X$ as the trigger, establishing a strong connection between the successful radiative breaking of CSI and DM phenomenologies. The latter forces the breaking scale to approximately $\mathcal{O}(\mathrm{TeV})$. It brightens the test prospect of this scenario via a gravitational wave, a sharp prediction of CSI phase transition (CSIPT), which is first order and has strong supercooling. Moreover, we carefully deal with some techniques which are commonly used to analyze CSIPT but may be missed. In particular, we clarify the imprecision of Witten's formula used in the single field case to calculate the bubble nucleation rate and stress that the essence of Witten's approximation is the validity of high-temperature expansion.

Observational constraints on dark matter decaying via gravity portals * *Supported by National key research and development program 2018YFA0404204, the National Science Foundation of China (U1531131 and U1738211), and the Science Foundation of Yunnan Province (2018FA004)

Global symmetry can guarantee the stability of dark matter particles (DMps). However, the nonminimal coupling between dark matter (DM) and gravity can break the global symmetry of DMps, which in turn leads to their decay. Under the framework of nonminimal coupling between scalar singlet dark matter (ssDM) and gravity, it is worth exploring the extent to which the symmetry of ssDM is broken. It is suggested that the total number of decay products of ssDM cannot exceed current observational constraints. Along these lines, the data obtained with satellites such as Fermi-LAT and AMS-02 suggest that the scale of ssDM global symmetry breaking can be limited. Because the mass of many promising DM candidates is likely to be in the GeV-TeV range, we determine reasonable parameters for the ssDM lifetime within this range. We find that when the mass of ssDM is around the electroweak scale (246 GeV), the corresponding 3σ lower limit of the lifetime of ssDM is s. Our analysis of ssDM around the electroweak scale encompasses the most abundant decay channels of all mass ranges so that the analysis of the behavior of ssDM under the influence of gravity is more comprehensive.

UV Shadows in EFTs: Accidental Symmetries, Robustness and No‐Scale Supergravity

AbstractWe argue that accidental approximate scaling symmetries are robust predictions of weakly coupled string vacua, and show that their interplay with supersymmetry and other (generalised) internal symmetries underlies the ubiquitous appearance of no‐scale supergravities in low‐energy 4D EFTs. We identify 4 nested types of no‐scale supergravities, and show how leading quantum corrections can break scale invariance while preserving some no‐scale properties (including non‐supersymmetric flat directions). We use these ideas to classify corrections to the low‐energy 4D supergravity action in perturbative 10D string vacua, including both bulk and brane contributions. Our prediction for the Kähler potential at any fixed order in and string loops agrees with all extant calculations. p‐form fields play two important roles: they spawn many (generalised) shift symmetries; and space‐filling 4‐forms teach 4D physics about higher‐dimensional phenomena like flux quantisation. We argue that these robust symmetry arguments suffice to understand obstructions to finding classical de Sitter vacua, and suggest how to get around them in UV complete models.

Threshold effects in SO(10) models with one intermediate breaking scale

Despite the successes of the Standard Model of particle physics, it is known to suffer from a number of deficiencies. Several of these can be addressed within non-supersymmetric theories of grand unification based on text {SO}(10). However, achieving gauge coupling unification in such theories is known to require additional physics below the unification scale, such as symmetry breaking in multiple steps. Many such models are disfavored due to bounds on the proton lifetime. Corrections arising from threshold effects can, however, modify these conclusions. We analyze all seven relevant breaking chains with one intermediate symmetry breaking scale, assuming the “survival hypothesis” for the scalar masses. Two are allowed by proton lifetime and two are disfavored by a failure to unify the gauge couplings. The remaining three unify at a too low scale, but can be salvaged by various amounts of threshold corrections. We parametrize this and thereby rank the models by the size of the threshold corrections required to save them.

Constraining the gauge and scalar sectors of the doublet left-right symmetric model

We consider a left-right symmetric extension of the Standard Model where the spontaneous breakdown of the left-right symmetry is triggered by doublets. The electroweak ρ parameter is protected from large corrections in this Doublet Left-Right Model (DLRM), contrary to the triplet case. This allows in principle for more diverse patterns of symmetry breaking. We consider several constraints on the gauge and scalar sectors of DLRM: the unitarity of scattering processes involving gauge bosons with longitudinal polarisations, the radiative corrections to the muon ∆r parameter and the electroweak precision observables measured at the Z pole and at low energies. Combining these constraints within the frequentist CKMfitter approach, we see that the fit pushes the scale of left-right symmetry breaking up to a few TeV, while favouring an electroweak symmetry breaking triggered not only by the SU(2)L×SU(2)R bi-doublet, which is the case most commonly considered in the literature, but also by the SU(2)L doublet.

Constraining Affleck-Dine leptogenesis after thermal inflation

Affleck-Dine leptogenesis after thermal inflation along the LHu direction requires mL2+mHu2 < 0 up to the AD scale (|L|≃|Hu|∼ 109 GeV). We renormalised this condition from the AD scale to the soft supersymmetry breaking scale by solving the renormalisation group equations perturbatively in the Yukawa couplings to obtain a semi-analytic constraint on the soft supersymmetry breaking parameters, which is much stronger than the tree-level result. We also used a fully numerical method to renormalise the baryogenesis condition and constrained the Minimal Supersymmetric Cosmological Model using the resulting baryogenesis condition and other constraints, specifically, electroweak symmetry breaking, the observed Higgs mass, and the axion and axino dark matter abundance.

Phenomenology and cosmology of no-scale attractor models of inflation

We have recently proposed attractor models for modulus fixing, inflation, supersymmetry breaking and dark energy based on no-scale supergravity. In this paper we develop phenomenological and cosmological aspects of these no-scale attractor models that underpin their physical applications. We consider models in which inflation is driven by a modulus field (T-type) with supersymmetry broken by a Polonyi field, or a matter field (ϕ-type) with supersymmetry broken by the modulus field. We derive the possible patterns of soft supersymmetry-breaking terms, which depend in T-type models whether the Polonyi and/or matter fields are twisted or not, and in ϕ-type models on whether the inflaton and/or other matter fields are twisted or not. In ϕ-type models, we are able to directly relate the scale of supersymmetry breaking to the inflaton mass. We also discuss cosmological constraints from entropy considerations and the density of dark matter on the mechanism for stabilizing the modulus field via higher-order terms in the no-scale Kähler potential.

Probing ALP-sterile neutrino couplings at the LHC

In this work, prospects to probe an overlooked facet of axion-like particles (ALPs) — their potential couplings to sterile neutrinos — are presented. We found that mono-photon searches have the potential to constrain ALP couplings to sterile neutrinos when a new heavy scalar boosts the ALP decay yields. Working within an effective field theory (EFT) approach, we scan the parameters space to establish the reach of the 13 TeV LHC to probe such couplings. We found regions of the parameters space evading several experimental constraints that can be probed at the LHC. Moreover, a complementary role between the LHC and various experiments that search for axions and ALPs can be anticipated for models where ALPs interact with sterile neutrinos. We also present the UV realization of a model having an axion-like particle, a heavy scalar and sterile neutrinos whose parameters are spanned by our EFT approach. The proposed model contains a type of seesaw mechanism for generating masses for the active neutrinos along with sterile neutrinos involving the high energy scale of the spontaneous breaking of the global symmetry associated to the ALP. Some benchmark points of this model can be discovered at the 13 TeV LHC with 300 fb−1.

Quantum stability in open string theory with broken supersymmetry

We consider the 1-loop effective potential in type I string theory compactified on a torus, with supersymmetry broken by the Scherk-Schwarz mechanism. At fixed supersymmetry breaking scale M, and up to exponentially suppressed terms, we show that the potential admits local minima of arbitrary sign, in dimension d ≤ 5. While the open string Wilson lines are massive, the closed string moduli are flat directions. In a T-dual picture, the relevant backgrounds involve isolated ½-branes, whose positions are frozen on orientifold planes, thus decreasing the rank of the gauge group, and introducing massless fermions in fundamental representations.

Constraints on electroweak gauged unparticle model from the oblique parameters S and T

We calculate the one loop contribution from an unparticle gauged model, based on the group SU(2)[Formula: see text]U(1), to the electroweak oblique parameters [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. Using the current bounds on [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] from electroweak measurements, we find the constraints on the scale dimension [Formula: see text] of the unparticle fermionic fields to be [Formula: see text] and the constraints on the conformal breaking scale [Formula: see text] to be [Formula: see text] Gev. The bounds on [Formula: see text] impose a lower limit on the conformal window of the unparticle fields which means that unparticle are not detectable below [Formula: see text] Gev.

Quark flavor phenomenology of the QCD axion

Axion models with generation-dependent Peccei-Quinn charges can lead to flavor-changing neutral currents, thus motivating QCD axion searches at precision flavor experiments. We rigorously derive limits on the most general effective flavor-violating couplings from current measurements and assess their discovery potential. For two-body decays we use available experimental data to derive limits on $q\to q' a$ decay rates for all flavor transitions. Axion contributions to neutral-meson mixing are calculated in a systematic way using chiral perturbation theory and operator product expansion. We also discuss in detail baryonic decays and three-body meson decays, which can lead to the best search strategies for some of the couplings. For instance, a strong limit on the $\Lambda\to n a$ transition can be derived from the supernova SN 1987A. In the near future, dedicated searches for $q\to q' a$ decays at ongoing experiments could potentially test Peccei-Quinn breaking scales up to $10^{12}$ GeV at NA62 or KOTO, and up to $10^{9}$ GeV at Belle II or BES III.

SO(10) unification with horizontal symmetry

We extend the nonsupersymmetric SO(10) grand unification theories by adding a horizontal symmetry, which connects the three generations of fermions. Without committing to any specific symmetry group, we investigate the 1-loop renormalization group evolutions of the gauge couplings with one and two intermediate breaking scales. We find that depending on the SO(10) breaking chains, gauge coupling unification is compatible with only a handful of choices of representations of the Higgs bosons under the horizontal symmetry.

Supersymmetric clockwork axion model and axino dark matter

Implications of supersymmetrizing the clockwork axions are studied. Supersymmetry ensures that the saxions and axinos have the same pattern of the coupling hierarchy as the clockwork axions. If we assume supersymmetry breaking is universal over the clockwork sites, the coupling structure is preserved, while the mass orderings of the saxions and axinos can differ depending on the supersymmetry breaking scale. While the massive saxions and axions quickly decay, the lightest axino can be stable and thus a dark matter candidate. The relic abundance of the axino dark matter from thermal production is mostly determined by decays of the heavier axinos in the normal mass ordering. This exponentially enhances the thermal yield compared to the conventional axino scenarios. Some cosmological issues are discussed.

Pati-Salam axion

I discuss the implementation of the Peccei-Quinn mechanism in a minimal realization of the Pati-Salam partial unification scheme. The axion mass is shown to be related to the Pati-Salam breaking scale and it is predicted via a two-loop renormalization group analysis to be in the window ma ∈ [10−11, 3 × 10−7] eV, as a function of a sliding Left-Right symmetry breaking scale. This parameter space will be fully covered by the late phases of the axion Dark Matter experiments ABRACADABRA and CASPEr-Electric. A Left-Right symmetry breaking scenario as low as 20 TeV is obtained for a Pati-Salam breaking of the order of the reduced Planck mass.

General neutrino interactions with sterile neutrinos in light of coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering and meson invisible decays

In this work we study the current bounds from the CEνNS process and meson invisible decays on generic neutrino interactions with sterile neutrinos in effective field theories. The interactions between quarks and left-handed SM neutrinos and/or right-handed neutrinos are first described by the low-energy effective field theory (LNEFT) between the electroweak scale and the chiral symmetry breaking scale. We complete the independent operator basis for the LNEFT up to dimension-6 by including both the lepton-number-conserving (LNC) and lepton-number-violating (LNV) operators involving right-handed neutrinos. We translate the bounds on the LNEFT Wilson coefficients from the COHERENT observation and calculate the branching fractions of light meson invisible decays. The bounds on LNEFT are then mapped onto the SM effective field theory with sterile neutrinos (SMNEFT) to constrain new physics above the electroweak scale. We find that the meson invisible decays can provide the only sensitive probe for τ neutrino flavor component and s quark component in the quark-neutrino interactions involving two (one) active neutrinos and for the effective operators without any active neutrino fields. The CEνNS process places the most stringent bound on all other Wilson coefficients. By assuming one dominant Wilson coefficient at a time in SMNEFT and negligible sterile neutrino mass, the most stringent limits on the new physics scale are 2.7–10 TeV from corresponding dipole operator in LNEFT and 0.5–1.5 TeV from neutrino-quark operator in LNEFT.

Sterile neutrino dark matter in left-right theories

SU(2)L× SU(2)R gauge symmetry requires three right-handed neutrinos (Ni), one of which, N1, can be sufficiently stable to be dark matter. In the early universe, WR exchange with the Standard Model thermal bath keeps the right-handed neutrinos in thermal equilibrium at high temperatures. N1 can make up all of dark matter if they freeze-out while relativistic and are mildly diluted by subsequent decays of a long-lived and heavier right-handed neutrino, N2. We systematically study this parameter space, constraining the symmetry breaking scale of SU(2)R and the mass of N1 to a triangle in the (vR, M1) plane, with vR = (106− 3 × 1012) GeV and M1 = (2 keV–1 MeV). Much of this triangle can be probed by signals of warm dark matter, especially if leptogenesis from N2 decay yields the observed baryon asymmetry. The minimal value of vR is increased to 108 GeV for doublet breaking of SU(2)R, and further to 109 GeV if leptogenesis occurs via N2 decay, while the upper bound on M1 is reduced to 100 keV. In addition, there is a component of hot N1 dark matter resulting from the late decay of N2→ N1ℓ+ℓ− that can be probed by future cosmic microwave background observations. Interestingly, the range of vR allows both precision gauge coupling unification and the Higgs Parity understanding of the vanishing of the Standard Model Higgs quartic at scale vR. Finally, we study freeze-in production of N1 dark matter via the WR interaction, which allows a much wider range of (vR, M1).

On the stability of open-string orbifold models with broken supersymmetry

We consider an open-string realisation of N=2→N=0 spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry in four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. It is based on type IIB orientifold theory compactified on T2×T4/Z2, with Scherk–Schwarz supersymmetry breaking implemented along T2. We show that in the regions of moduli space where the supersymmetry breaking scale is lower than the other scales, there exist configurations with minima that have massless Bose-Fermi degeneracy and hence vanishing one-loop effective potential, up to exponentially suppressed corrections. These backgrounds describe non-Abelian gauge theories, with all open-string moduli and blowing up modes of T4/Z2 stabilized, while all untwisted closed-string moduli remain flat directions. Other backgrounds with strictly positive effective potentials exist, where the only instabilities arising at one loop are associated with the supersymmetry breaking scale, which runs away. All of these backgrounds are consistent non-perturbatively.